


the ties that bind us

by Ford_Ye_Fiji



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, I FORGOT SUKI, I’ve seen this concept done about 12000 times, Ozai is a literal dumpster fire 2k19, RIP me, YES THERE IS A CUDDLEPILE, ZUKO ANGST BECAUSE I CAN, but idc, frick, hecken, i love it, im sorry suki forgive me, shes just not in this one, this is the two cakes thing guys, yall know what fanfic I was thinking of when that happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-26 22:14:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20937584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ford_Ye_Fiji/pseuds/Ford_Ye_Fiji
Summary: Toph wants to get a clear picture of what the Gaang looks like.





	the ties that bind us

"Hey Sokka." 

There was a pause and then a, "How'd you know it was me?"

Toph rolled her eyes. Honestly, what was with these guys? She huffed, blowing her bangs out of her mouth, "Because of the way you look, genius."

"Oh yeah." A moment passed and then, "Hey, wait!"

She snickered and Katara snorted from her place by the fire. Toph scratched her elbow absently, "It’s because of how you walk, genius. I’ve obviously got no idea what you look like." 

The comfortable silence around the campfire grew oppressive. Toph sat up, "What? What’s wrong with you guys now?" 

Katara sniffed, "You don’t know what we look like... that’s so... so sad!" 

Oh boy. Sweetness had entered mothering mode. Sokka joined her, "You’ll never be aware of my devastatingly good looks!" 

Aang added, "Or Momo's fluffy floppy ears!" 

Sokka snickered, "Or Zuko's pale delicate face." 

Zuko snapped, "Hey!" 

Toph grinned, an idea sparking in her mind's eye. She clambered over to Sokka, who had been snickering at Sparky and, without any warning, slapped a hand over his nose. The water tribe boy blinked, "Um... Toph? What're you doing?" 

She grinned, unaware of how deviously feral she looked, "Why I’m getting a good look at you." Her small fingers traced his chin (square, a bit lumpy).

Katara giggled, "You asked for it Sokka." Slim lips, and a muffled, " _Hey_ .” Toph traced his eyes, they were like hers, but more square again, and she could’ve sworn he squeaked, "Please don’t poke my eyes out." 

"I won’t if you don’t stop squirming." A moment later she snickered, stubby fingers dancing over a soft fuzz of hair and then settled on the top of his head, fingers threading through its coarse thickness, "Hey, you kept calling Zuko angry ponytail guy, but you’re the one with a ponytail." 

Zuko leaned back against a rock, "Angry ponytail guy?"

Toph kept Sokka from retorting, moving down again, "Man, you’ve got big ears."

"What? No I don’t! I don’t! And- and elephants can’t talk so they aren’t saying anything about them! So- so there!" 

"What?" 

"Nothing! I don’t know! My ears aren’t big!" 

Mildly confused but satisfied, Toph turned, "Katara, you’re next." 

Katara blinked, "Wait, what?" 

Toph pushed past Sokka, who grunted with a sullen, "Why don’t you go around the  _other_ way?" She flicked a rock at his shoulder and knelt by Katara, "Don’t act so surprised, Sweetness. Everybody is getting the blind treatment. I mean after all," she flicked her hair, "I’ll  _never_ be able to  _actually_ see you." 

Katara melted, "Oh alright." 

Toph giggled, "Gets them every time." 

She felt Katara's slim lips pull into a disapproving frown. Round cheeks gave way to high cheekbones, thick-lidded eyes and smooth eyebrows. She frowned, feeling hair drift down from her brow and away. Toph realized a moment later and she gaped, "Hair loopies! That’s what you were talking about! She’s got hair loopies!" 

Katara laughed, voice tinkling like bells, eyes crinkling, lashes long compared to Sokka's, "I always have them." 

Aang grabbed her small wrist and pushed it against his forehead eagerly, "I have tattoos!" 

Toph snorted, "I can’t _feel_ tattoos, Twinkletoes." 

Aang wilted under her rough fingertips, "Oh." Toph felt bad and added, "Though, they weren’t kidding when they said you were bald!" 

Aang laughed, Toph trailed down his large forehead, hitting slim eyebrows and expressive eyes, wide and alert. Toph gasped, "You have baby cheeks!" Aang pouted, "Hey, you’re the same age as me!"

Toph giggled, "I should’ve called you baby cheeks, twinkletoes." 

Sokka choked on a laugh, "I don’t have to tell you how wrong that sounds-“ 

Katara elbowed her brother in the gut and he doubled over with a wheeze. Zuko surreptitiously sipped his tea and pretended that he wasn’t amused. Tosh finished off her inspection of the avatar with a rounded equally smooth chin. She turned, "Alright, it’s your turn." 

Zuko's heart rate picked up, "What?"

Toph settled next to him, reaching for his head. He jerked away from her seeing fingers, "Uh, I think I’m good." 

Childish pleading colored the disappointed edge in Aang's words, the small boy slumping, "Aw, you can’t just back out like that!" 

Sweetness chided him, "Zuko, we all did it." 

Sokka parroted his sister, sitting straighter, "Yeah, Zuko! We all did it! It’s your turn!" 

Toph smirked, finally catching Sparky's chin in her hands, "Yeah, c'mon Sparky. Don’t you technically owe us one, anyway? You know- for combustion man?" 

Zuko wilted, shoulders slumping, a soft breath puffing out from between his lips, "Yeah, okay, Toph." 

She was a master of manipulation. Toph grinned triumphantly, "Ha!" 

Sokka was right, she found. His features were delicate. Angular, but delicate. More like Sweetness than anyone else in their troop. His left eye, his right- her left, was slim and more almond shaped than the rest of them, eyebrow sharp and delicate. He blinked, long lashes brushing against her thumb. Toph grinned, "Oh man, you’re warm." 

He shrugged self-consciously, breath bubbling up. She could  _feel_ it, an inner fire, spreading out and unfurling under his skin with every inhale and exhale, like a warm blanket under her fingertips, "Firebenders run a little hot." 

Toph huffed, combing her fingers through an excess of soft shaggy hair, "Well I don’t see a ponytail anywhere, Sokka. Are you sure you’re not talking about yourself when you say angry ponytail guy?" 

Sokka spluttered. Katara laughed.

Aang supported her immediately, "Yeah, Sokka, maybe you’re projecting!"

Zuko chuckled, "I did have a ponytail. But it was awhile ago." 

Toph grinned triumphantly, feeling the weight of Sparky's small but genuine smile under her fingertips. And then she moved her other hand up, over the soft curve of his cheek to a... a rough crater. She frowned. She traced the edges of it warily, feeling lumps and knots in patches of too slick-stretched skin. It ended near his ear, and even she knew ears weren’t quite supposed to be like that. The shell of it crumpled and burnt inwards. It was the scar the others mentioned offhandedly. It had to be. It was... it was bigger than she’d imagined. 

Zuko had gone silent and cold. She could feel his heart pattering frantically. 

She swallowed, following the edges up over where his other eyebrow was  supposed to be, all the way to the bridge of his nose. She finally, tentatively ventured into its center, finding his other eye easily. He blinked, whole body tensed.

She breathed out a sigh of relief. His eye was still there. Her lips pressed together however, as a more gentle exploration determined his eye couldn’t even open right. No wonder he never seemed to forget she couldn’t see. He’d been branded just like her. 

Toph huffed, swallowed, and spat, "Sokka was right. You are delicate." 

Zuko shrugged, turning away, and she could imagine his good eye flicking towards the ground, the other one too narrow and slitted, "Yeah, I guess." 

Toph sat down beside him, "Well I’m cold." 

He blinked bewilderedly, "What?" 

Toph snuggled closer, pulling on his arm, "I’m cold and you're a hot water bottle. Share the heat you hog." 

Aang scrambled over, "Is he really that warm?" A moment later the boy gasped, pressed up against Zuko's other side, "Oh man! Sifu Hotman! You really are a hot man!" 

Sokka began laughing so loud and hard that Toph could feel him fall off of his seat with a thump. Katara snickered. Zuko's heartbeat had slowed, though Toph could feel him stiff beside them. At least it was from embarrassed awkwardness and not the boiling knot of undefinable emotion that it had been earlier. 

Zuko shifted, "Uh, I’m sure the campfire is much warmer?" Aang shook his head, "Nuh-huh. It’s not. You’re like a campfire that you can touch!" The avatar straightened, "Katara, c'mon!" The waterbender shrugged and shuffled closer, eyes widening, "Oh spirits, you were right." She turned, and Toph doesn’t need to see her grin to know that it was there, "Sokka!" 

He glowered at them all clinging to the hapless Zuko like moonstruck fools. Zuko shook his head at the water tribe boy desperately, "Please don’t encourage them." 

Sokka was quiet for a moment and then, "Did you just tell me  _not_ to do something?" 

Katara shrieks and Sokka takes a running leap at them. They’re all thrown backwards in a slump, though Toph can feel the air bending around them to keep their landing soft. Toph giggles and oh, Zuko is so _warm_ against the cold night. Katara huffs and Aang wriggles around trying to get comfortable. Sparky's heart beats steadily against her. 

Zuko sighs, "Is this really necessary?"

Sokka groans, “Oh man, yes, it totally is."

Toph yawns, "Well I’m going to sleep." 

"What?" Sparky tries to squirm out of their comfortable huddle, but the weight of four children laying on him render him rather helpless. Toph does her best impression of a rock, "No." 

Twinkletoes mumbles sleepily, "Stop moving Zuko."

Sokka sighs and Sweetness curls around him. 

Toph smiles against his shoulder and closes her eyes.

Zuko finally relaxes, resigning himself to being their blanket. All in all it could’ve been worse and if the weight of his  <strike> family </strike> friends reminds him that he’s not alone and brings a small smile to his lips, well, that’s just a coincidence.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr here: https://ford-ye-fiji.tumblr.com/


End file.
